Ambaktoi (British Retainers Spearmen)
The Ambaktoi are well well drilled, disciplined spearmen. They are unlikely to break and flee and should be employed in support of swordsmen and cavalry. Description Even the most bellicose of bulls may be held at bay, assuming one can construct a fence sturdy enough to corral it. So too can the most wild eyed of foes be brought to heel, if one can present an impassable wall of spears to him. The Ambakatoi are such a wall of spears. Although they will gladly lead the charge, their bloodlust is cool enough to enable them to hold the line should they be required to do so. Historically the most common type of weapon to be recovered from the British Iron Age, aside from slingstones, are spears. This should come as no surprise, unlike swords which have many more components, spears are comparatively simple to produce. In fact one example from the hill-fort at Danebury was produced by hammering a saw blade into that of a spear. Tacitus, writing in the Agricola, notes that the Britons relied most on their infantry in warfare and bearing this in mind, as well as the rarity of swords compared to spears, it seems safe to conclude that much of this infantry were equipped as spearmen. It has been argued that there was a large amount of ritual associated with Iron Age warfare in Britain. One aspect of this appears to have been an emphasis on killing your opponent in close quarters. It has been noted that in some societies ranged weapons, such as a arrows and slings, are considered to be cowardly, and that the only honourable way to kill an individual is via the use of melee weapons. Such an argument does appear valid for Iron Age Britain, when we consider the lack of evidence for archery for much of the Iron Age and the fact slingstones never appear as grave goods, whilst melee weapons do. There is also skeletal evidence to suggest that melee weapons were the accepted form of combat. In one instance a grave from Yorkshire was found in which several spears had been thrust, blade first, into a burial mound covering the grave of a male who showed evidence of having suffered numerous injuries to head from bladed weapons.These injuries did not kill him, as there is evidence of the bone healing, thereby demonstrating that he lived to recover. However, such injuries no doubt affected him mentally and it is possible that the spears which had been thrust into the burial mound were some sort of way of ensuring that his corpse never rose again. In addition to an apparent preference for spears, whereas on the continent at this time swords appear to have been preferred (at least by those who had access to them), the Britons were also distinct from their Gallic cousins in terms of the shields they used. Although oval and rectilinear shields such as those used on the continent have been recovered in Britain, either in the form of ornate metal variants (the so called "parade armour"), wooden and metal miniatures or in rare cases preserved in bogs, a unique insular variant was also used by the Britons. The so called "hide shaped" shield, which is oval in shape but with two inverted crescent ends, thereby giving it the shape of a skinned cattle hide, is known both from metal miniatures and archaeological excavations. When recovered from excavations all that typically remains are bronze clasps which framed the corners of the shield. This suggests that such shields were made of leather, as was the case for a preserved shield recovered from an Irish bog which dates to this period. However miniature examples of this shield appear to suggest that wooden versions were also in use, based on the decoration applied to them. In addition to the use of this unique shield shape, British shields were also different from their Gallic contemporaries in that they used bronze for the shield bosses. Whereas Gallic shields used iron bosses, which spread out laterally across the face of the shield, British shields tended to use bronze shield bosses which went stretched out over the length of the the spine of the shield, rather than going across the face of the shield. Why the Britons preferred to use bronze is unclear, even in instances where shields have been recovered from Britain which have continental shaped shield bosses, such as the example from Owselbury, they are still fashioned out of bronze. Usage These men are a powerful unit of spear men quite capable of battling infantry and more than capable of battling the heaviest cavalry, a role they fit nicely with as they are the only true counter against them the Pritanoi has until they can recruit more spearmen from the Gallic settlements. They can also be used to reinforce the battle line, due to having a good defensive stats compared to the Agrokunoi (British Retainers Swordsmen). Category:Units Category:Units available only in EB2 Category:Aedui Category:Arverni Category:Pritanoi